Frame of Kayak at Nunivak Island, Alaska, 1927. (Pholo by Henry B. Collins.) 



occasionally found. Where possible, the lashings are 

 turned in so that the turns cross right and left. In 

 some parts of the framework two pieces of timber 

 are "sewn" together; holes are bored along the edges 

 to be joined and a lacing run in with continuous 

 over-and-over turns. These laced joints are common 

 in the stems of the Alaskan kayaks. Gunwales and 

 battens are most commonly lashed through holes 

 bored in them and in the bow and stern members. 

 Care is taken that all lashings are fiush on the outside, 

 so that the skin cover is smooth and chafing will 

 be avoided. Bone knobs at stem and stern heads 

 are used in the Coronation Gulf kayaks in the west 

 and in many Greenland models. Bone stem bands 

 are more widely employed, however, being in use 

 at Kodiak and Nunivak Islands, in the Aleutians, at 

 Norton Sound in Alaska, and in Greenland and Baffin 

 Island in the east. It is probable that these bands 

 were once in wider use than thus indicated. Strips of 

 bone are also used to prevent chafing at gunwale in 

 paddling and for strengthening scarphs in the manhole 

 rim. 



It will be noted that all Eskimo skin boats have a 

 complete framing system, which is first erected and 

 then fitted with the skin cover. This is a method of 

 construction very different from that of the birch- 

 bark canoes of the Indians living to the southward of 



the American Eskimo. The birch-bark canoe is 

 built by forcing a framing system into an assembled 

 cover and holding it in place there by a rigid gun- 

 wale structure, to which the bark cover is lashed. 

 This basic structure is used even in the Alaskan 

 area, where there are birch-bark canoes that in hull 

 form and proportions strongly resemble the flat- 

 bottom kayak. The basic difference between the two 

 craft is illustrated by the fact that whereas the removal 

 of the skin cover of the kayak leaves the frame in- 

 tact, the removal of the bark cover of the kayak-like 

 birch-bark canoes would result in the collapse of 

 the framework, except for the gunwale-thwart 

 structure or, in a few, the chine-floor structure. 

 Because of this basic difference the superficial re- 

 semblance of some Indian bark canoes to kayaks 

 has no meaningful relationship to the possibility of 

 the influence of the kayak on the bark canoe, or 

 vice-versa. Some Indian tribes have in fact built 

 skin-covered canoes, as will be seen in chapter 8, but 

 the framework and structural system used ii always 

 that of the bark canoe, never that of the Eskimo 

 skin boat. Nor is there evidence that the Eskimo 

 ever used the bark canoe frame-structure in their 

 kyaks or umiaks. Hence, in spite of contact be- 

 tween these peoples, the watercraft of each remains 

 basically different in structural design. 



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